Tuesday 29 May 2012

The Desperate Writer

"Jof walked away, content to return to his Master as an idea began to form around the strange encounter. He might not understand it, but he was beginning to think he knew what to do about it."

That would be the last line that I wrote on my WIP this morning before I gave up in frustration and decided shopping with a twelve-yr-old girl would be less torturous.

And yes, in fact, that line is exactly what it appears to be: a desperate, last ditch hope that by telling the character, in writing, that he knew what to do next, even if I have no idea, when I come back, he will actually be able to tell me the answer. It is what you think: me practically begging the character to find the solution to my plot dilemma. I think it's only fair, though, if they are going to continue to do stuff I hadn't anticipated when I started out, they should also be prepared to fix the mess they made of my plot. I don't think I'm being unreasonable.

With this one, in fact, I sort of feel like I'm doing and endless rubik's cube.

(why yes, I am a child of the eighties, why do you ask?) or better yet, some cruel plot god has forced one of those knot puzzles into my hands and told me I have to solve it before I get the next piece of my story. You know the kind, where you have to untie the knot that will free the ring to uncross the sticks so you can lift the lid and release the marble to weight the strings so you can untie the knot.....

You see where I'm going with this?

Yeah. I was always complete crap at those. Who thinks plot god will smite me if I get out my scissors?

I am curious, though. Does anyone else do this sort of thing, where they totally ditch all reason and fully expect that the characters will find the answer when they're not looking? or is that just me?

3 comments:

Marci Baun said...

<--Raising hand

I do, Jaime. It's why I write so little...probably. (g)

Jaime Samms said...

At least I'm not alone. Thankfully, I have other WIPs to work on. A couple of reticent cowboys with a difficult horse come to mind. I think Miles and Dillon need my attention.....

Tali Spencer said...

I do this, too. Sometimes I just tell my characters to take off a few days to figure things out. Forcing them gets me nowhere!